Subway and Bus Blasts in London Kill at Least 37

LONDON, July 7 - Bomb explosions tore through three subway trains and a red-painted double-decker bus in a coordinated terror attack during London's morning rush hour on Thursday, killing at least 37 people, wounding about 700 and leaving the city stunned and bloodied but oddly stoic.

On Wednesday, London bubbled over with joy at winning the 2012 Olympics. On Thursday, commuters on the city's subways -- the Tube -- were plunged into the nightmare of a subterranean bloodbath, when the first explosion blasted a subway train 100 yards into the tunnel at Liverpool Street station at 8:51 a.m., according to a police chronology. Seven people died.

The next explosion occurred at 8:56 a.m. near King's Cross station, where the death toll was 21, the police said.

Twenty-one minutes later, at 9:17, a third blast ripped through a train coming into Edgware Road underground station, killing seven.

Above ground, at 9.47 a.m., an explosion tore open the roof of a No.30 double-decker bus with such force that it threw debris high into the air. The blast, at the junction of Upper Woburn Place and Tavistock Square, was so powerful that it took hours to determine that two people had died.

The entire subway network was closed as rescue workers went deep below ground to look for the dead and wounded. Police officers in yellow slickers sealed off streets, and bus services were halted.

"It is reasonably clear that there have been a series of terrorist attacks in London," a shaken-looking Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters before he left the Group of 8 summit meeting he was host for at Gleneagles, Scotland. The attack, he said, was timed to coincide with the summit meeting.

Mr. Blair flew back to London to lead emergency ministerial meetings here, leaving the other seven leaders -- including President Bush -- for several hours.

Immediately after the attacks, the United States raised its terror alert level from elevated to high for mass transit systems, and European nations also increased mass transit security precautions.

A group describing itself as being affiliated with Al Qaeda took responsibility for the attacks on a Web site, but the police said they were unable to confirm the authenticity of the claim. The group, the Secret Orgnization of Al Qaeda in Europe, said the attacks had been undertaken to avenge British involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The attacks were the worst in British memory since World War II.

Some of the wounded were ferried to hospitals swathed in silvery space blankets, their faces blackened with soot. The police said seriously wounded people had lost limbs and were badly burned.

Three million people ride London's subway system each day. The blast initially spread chaos with police cars, ambulances and fire engines speeding across the city.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the police here have been rehearsing emergency procedures and seemed to be following pre-arranged measures, urging people to stay where they were, tune into television, radio or Web site and avoid central London.

When transportation was cut off, tourists gathered at the gates of Hyde Park, lining up to ask police officers how to reach the airport or other destinations. Ten-minute subway rides became 45-minute walks. A woman eight months pregnant was told her trip home would take two hours.

Around 11 a.m. along Edgware Road, pedestrians at the police barriers sought directions on how to get around cordoned-off areas.

Yusuf Pandor, 40, of North West London, was looking to return to his car on the other side of the barriers. Just more than an hour earlier, he was one of many good Samaritans helping pull bombing victims into the nearby Hilton Metropol.

"They were shaken, bleeding," Mr. Pador said. "One woman was badly injured, burned on her face. She had it covered. People were just shocked."

Loyita Worley, who works for a city law firm, told the BBC that she was in the subway when an explosion took place in the next carriage, while it was in a tunnel.

Ms. Worley, 49, said: "All the lights went out and the train came to an immediate halt. There was smoke everywhere, and everyone was coughing and choking, but remained calm. We couldn't open the doors."

Benjamin Velazquez, 34, a banker from Brooklyn, said he was visiting London to work and had been aboard the train attacked near Liverpool Street station. "There was a loud bang, and it felt like something was falling on top of the train," he said. "Then dust was flying around, black dust. And then smoke."

He said it had taken about 45 minutes to be rescued, and he broke down in tears once above ground, calling his mother to assure her he was in good shape, just as people did on Sept. 11, 2001.

He said he realized from the beginning that there had been an attack because a subway car ahead of his had been blown outward to reveal the seats within. "The whole side of the train was open," he said.

Some Londoners took the bombings in their stride, citing their long experience of Irish Republican Army attacks -- but with the key distinction that the I.R.A. often issued warnings of when it would strike, and has observed a form of truce for more than eight years.

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"We've seen all this before in a way," said Sgt. John Burnett, a police officer patrolling under the tall chestnut trees near where the bus was attacked. "We've been fighting the I.R.A. for years in London. So bombs are nothing new.

"But the difference is that I.R.A. provided some warning for their attacks. It seems the hallmark of these attacks is we get no warning, whatsoever. It was a matter of when, not if."

By evening, some parts of the city were eerily calm, the usually thronged streets around some railroad stations cordoned off and empty while thousands of people packed the sidewalks, stranded by the lack of public transportation. Stores closed early, West End theaters canceled their shows for a night, and the Covent Garden Opera House was shuttered. The theater closings were thought to be the first since World War II, with the exception of state funerals.

There were several theories about the strategy and methodology of the bombings, including the possibility that the devices in the subway were set off by timers.

British officials have been forecasting a major terror strike on London since the Sept. 11 attacks, particularly since Britain sided with the United States in the war in Iraq. Mr. Blair, speaking before he left Scotland for London, said, "Just as it is reasonably clear that this is a terrorist attack or a series of terrorist attacks, it is clear that it is designed and aimed to coincide with the opening of the G8."

He said it was "particularly barbaric" that the attacks coincided with a gathering intended to combat African poverty and global warming.

"The terrorists will not succeed," he said. "Today's bombings will not weaken in any way our resolve to uphold the most deeply held principles of our societies and to defeat those who would impose their fanaticism and extremism on all of us. We shall prevail and they shall not."

In a recorded message later from his office at 10 Downing Street, a somber Mr. Blair declared,

"The purpose of terrorism is just that -- to terrorize people and we will not be terrorized."

In his broadcast, Mr. Blair sought to prevent any backlash against British or foreign Muslims, noting that while terrorists said they acted in the name of Islam, most Muslims in Britain and around the world were "decent law-abiding people who deplore these acts of terrorism as much as we do."

The Anglican bishop of Stepney in East London, Stephen Oliver, said, "It's very important that we reassure the wider community because a great deal of damage can be done to social cohesion through fear."

In Gleneagles, Mr. Bush drew the comparison between the aims of the summit and the bombers.

"On the one hand, you have people working to alleviate poverty and rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS and ways to have a clean environment and, on the other hand, you have people working to kill people," he said.

"The contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill, those who've got such evil in their hearts that they will take the lives of innocent folks." Mr. Bush said. "The war on terror goes on."

The blast spread worries across Europe, particularly in those lands that are seen as allies of the United States -- Spain until last year, Italy and others.

"This should be a wake-up call for us all, since England has the best antiterrorism tradition in Europe," said Francesco Sidoti, a security expert at the University of L'Aquila in Italy. "We were unprepared."

"This has nothing to do with the old-style domestic terrorism that Europe is used to," he said referring to scattered acts of violence committed by groups like the Red Brigades in Italy.

Italy's prime minister and president expressed their outrage at the attacks, as did Pope Benedict XVI, who called the bombings "barbaric acts against humanity."

In Germany, which has more than 2,000 troops in Afghanistan, Otto Schily, the interior minister, urged Germans to be vigilant because their country was a potential terrorist target. "We have to be cautious and increase our vigilance at various locations," he said.

In Iraq, the London bombings were met with widespread sympathy among Iraqis, who have become accustomed to bombings that have subjected cities like Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk to a casualty toll, on many days, similar to that sustained in the British capital. In offices, restaurants and workshops across Baghdad, people gathered to watch live television images of the turmoil in London, and offered condolences to Britons working in Iraq.

"It was with deep sorrow that we heard the news of the bombings in London, and of the civilian casualties," Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Iraqi prime minister, said in a message to Mr. Blair. "This terrorist action that has no connection to any religion or any humanitarian values."

"I'd like to send my deep condolences to you and through you to the British people generally, and to the victims' families especially," Dr. Jaafari said. "All countries that experience terrorism must work together to defeat it and create a peaceful world."

The Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, offered his own condolences to Britain, and echoed Dr. Jaafari's sentiments. "Terrorism is an international plague, and all nations should fight it together, because if we don't it will spread even further than it already has," he said.

Reporting for this article was contributed by Richard W. Stevenson from Auchterarder, Scotland